Chapter 1 The River

This river flowed from the direction of the Dubaiya Great Marsh. Perhaps because it was the dry season, the water volume was not abundant, but the water flow was still very turbulent due to the dangerous terrain. This underground river rushed down from a cliff, displaying the courage to be smashed to pieces on the rocks, and stirred up a large amount of water mist. There was a slightly pungent feeling in the misty white fog.

Obviously, this was the toxic substance contained within.

Clearly, for normal people, just the cliff ahead was a chasm-like existence. Even a professional scientific expedition team in the real world would have to use various tools to go upstream, which would inevitably waste a lot of time.

But, for Fang Senyan!

For Fang Senyan, who possessed several times, even dozens of times more strength than ordinary people, for Fang Senyan who possessed the incredibly powerful Pirate Captain title, this dangerous terrain and the rapids that must be navigated upstream could absolutely not stop his exploration!

For their strength, turning a chasm into a thoroughfare was not just a joke.

Although there were only a dozen hours left before returning, Fang Senyan's fighting spirit was burning fiercely. His confidence came from the success of Little Fogg. If Little Fogg could get the Solar Ladder back then, then he definitely could too!

The difficulty of going upstream along the rapids need not be mentioned. What surprised Fang Senyan was that Mbenga insisted on following him for some reason! Fang Senyan could easily stay underwater for more than half an hour, but this guy couldn't. That meant he had to risk death to move forward!

When passing through a river channel that was completely submerged by the water flow, because he had to climb waterfalls more than five meters high, Mbenga could only be tied to Fang Senyan's back with ropes to continue moving forward. Although Fang Senyan tried his best to shorten the time to get through that section of the river, Mbenga still fainted due to suffocation. But when he was rescued, he still firmly demanded to continue following him.

"My soul tells me that I must go deep there to find myself. For this, I am willing to pay any price!"

Mbenga was very serious when he said this, and Fang Senyan could only respect his wishes. After Fang Senyan spent a full five hours, he finally saw a light at the end of the river!

The underground river, which had been traveling underground, finally emerged from the deep and rugged underground and saw that striking ray of light! There was no doubt that this was the destination of Fang Senyan and his party, the heart of the Dubaiya Great Marsh! Under normal circumstances, it would take countless hardships and dangers to get here, accept countless crazy tests and challenges, and pave the way with countless corpses and souls, but through this turbulent underground river, although the journey was difficult, it would only take a few hours!

Just as they were about to reach the exit, Fang Senyan noticed something unusual on a stone platform of about ten square meters next to him. He quickly walked over to take a look and immediately found that there were a large number of extremely moldy clothes piled up here. A gentle touch turned them into almost moldy dust. Obviously, after Little Fogg arrived here more than ten years ago, he gathered his men, and everyone took off their clothes.

This was undoubtedly a move worth vigilance. Under Fang Senyan's sharp gaze, he also found a few scattered moldy wooden boards next to a rock. These wooden boards were so decayed that it seemed like they would crumble at the touch of a finger.

With his imagination and experience, Fang Senyan successfully restored and pieced together those wooden boards in his mind. It turned out to be a wooden bucket that was very common on ships. This kind of wooden bucket was almost omnipotent on ships. It could be used for scooping water, holding things, washing faces, washing feet, as a rice bowl, a urine bucket, as protective gear when put on the head during battle, and as a life buoy when the ship sank if two were tied around the waist with the lid tightened...

Fang Senyan walked closer and dug at the bottom of the bucket with his finger. After wiping off the floating soil and rotten wood on it, a strange feeling came from his finger, as if he was touching solidified wax. He took some water from the side to rinse it off, and a thick layer of light yellow substance was revealed, tightly attached to the rock. Fang Senyan scraped off a little and carefully rubbed it on his fingertip, then quickly passed it over the tip of his tongue and immediately identified it.

This was an essential thing on ships in this era, with a resounding name: Devil's Oil.

In fact, it was suet boiled with lime and wood. This thing was not uncommon on ships. It was a necessity for pirates, merchants, and navies. It was a good fire-starting material in battles, and it could be used to repair and glue cracks in leaking ships. And after adding special spices from the Madagascar Islands for boiling, it had a long shelf life and was not easy to spoil. Even in shipwrecks, it was common to see cans and cans of this stuff.

Fang Senyan lay on the ground and looked carefully for a while, and also found half a dried-up vine in this whale oil. The environment here didn't have that preservation ability. If this thing hadn't been buried in the whale oil, it would have turned to ashes long ago after being eroded by moisture for more than ten years. The characteristics of the fork in this vine were quite obvious. Fang Senyan took out a fresh "Charlie-ba" plant from the team space and felt that it was the same species after a slight comparison.

Fang Senyan closed his eyes...

More than ten years ago, Little Fogg and his party climbed onto this rocky platform, panting, and then a group of people took off their clothes and trousers, revealing their skinny and dirty bodies. They took out this wooden bucket containing whale oil, and then rubbed the "Charlie-ba" plant in this Devil's Oil...

The key to this was, obviously, why these guys had to take off their clothes?

Fang Senyan couldn't figure it out even if he racked his brains. These guys couldn't possibly be carrying lubricants all the way to this dark cave in Africa to engage in some gay activities. But fortunately, Fang Senyan had a solution to this incomprehensible matter, that was to try it himself to see if there was anything special about it.

Although the Devil's Oil had solidified on the rocks, it was far from its expiration date. Just scrape it off the rocks and tidy it up, and you could gather a fist-sized piece, which could be used after heating it slightly. Fang Senyan took out the "Charlie-ba" plant that he had collected not long ago, and then rubbed it in the scalding hot Devil's Oil. Soon, he actually received a prompt, which immediately stunned Fang Senyan: "You are trying to blend the special plant of this world: Charlie-ba."

"Blending..."

"Blending failed..."

"Blending in progress..."

"Blending failed..."

"Blending in progress..."

"Blending failed..."

After seeing this series of prompts, Fang Senyan immediately remembered that when he killed the Mature Infected Type II, he obtained a Dubaiya recipe called Gugu Jisi. This recipe could be used to extract a drug called Gugu Jisi, and he had just collected the materials to make it.

Now, facing this situation, even if Fang Senyan was stupid, he would know what was going on, not to mention that he already possessed the ability to concoct medicines? Obviously! Bernard Fogg also obtained a Dubaiya recipe that was likely to be quite powerful back then. The two raw materials in this recipe were estimated to be animal fat plus the Charlie-ba plant!

If it were other people at this time, they might still feel troubled, but what kind of person was Fang Senyan? A concocting master! Directly inherited from Saruman's direct line concocting technique in The Lord of the Rings, and after so long of research, his various concocting methods were even more skilled. As for concocting tools, they were his livelihood, and he could take them out at any time to make some extra money, so without much effort, Fang Senyan experimented with the secret recipe that Little Fogg obtained in just ten minutes.

Poor Little Fogg did not hesitate to destroy his ancestors' relics in order to keep this huge secret, but it was still unraveled by Fang Senyan, who peeled back the layers of time and revealed the truth of the matter...

"These idiots don't even know the method of steaming and purification. They directly rub this Charlie-ba in the ointment. How long will it take to rub it?"

While Fang Senyan muttered to himself, he quickly began to steam and purify the Charlie-ba plant he had collected, and finally obtained a small bowl of crystal clear liquid like a purple crystal.

Then he began to try to take a straw and start dripping this liquid into the fat for experimentation, and finally obtained the most reasonable recipe.

"Trial-produced improved potion (improved from the Dubaiya ancient potion: Thick Fog)"

"Method of use: Application."

"Dosage ratio: 1 part oil and fat mixed with 1 part Charlie-ba plant distillate (90% purity)"

"After being applied to human skin, it will form a strange volatile substance with human sweat glands and body fluids. This volatile substance will affect any creatures that have lived in the Dubaiya Thick Fog for a long time, reducing the probability of them discovering you within three meters by 99%."

"After being applied to weapons, once this potion enters the blood and body fluids of any creature that has lived in the Dubaiya Thick Fog for a long time, it will cause them to fall into a negative state of reduced strength by 25% to 50%. This effect lasts for 24 hours."

"The duration of this trial-produced improved potion is increased to 240 minutes. The effect of this potion will be lost after this time limit."